Hmm, they should be in the usual locations. Some pop-up windows may not have them, but the main window (you can launch a new one using Ctrl+n) definitely should.

Have you customized the toolbar area in any significant ways or created a userChrome.css file with interface customizations?

Some add-ons have been known to hide those buttons.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

Thank You FredMcD.... worked great! Fast fix

Glad to help. Safe Surfing.

What was causing the problem?

I have the missing buttons in addition to the Starting Minimised problem too. Starting in Safe Mode works fine but not Normal Mode. Tried renaming xulstore.json - no change to faults

Kozmyk It could be the work of one of your add-ons. Type about:addons<enter> in the address bar to open your Add-ons Manager. Hot key; <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> A)

In the Add-ons Manager, on the left, select Extensions. Disable a few add-ons, then Restart Firefox.

Some added toolbar and anti-virus add-ons are known to cause Firefox issues. Disable All Of them.

If the problem continues, disable some more (restarting FF). Continue until the problem is gone. After, you know what group is causing the issue. Re-enable the last group ONE AT A TIME (restarting FF) until the problem returns.

Once you think you found the problem, disable that and re-enable all the others, then restart again. Let us know who the suspect is, detective.

I do not know what caused this, just upgraded to 57.0 /64bit and the buttons were not to be found. Thanks for your help!

Hi zgbarry, did you try the Safe Mode test to see whether that makes any difference?

It worked by holding the shift key and starting Firefox 57. The just were there

If it works in Safe Mode and in normal mode with all extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) disabled then try to find which extension is causing the problem by enabling one extension at a time until the problem reappears.

Close and restart Firefox after each change via one of these:

• "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
• Windows: File -> Exit
• Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
• Linux: File -> Quit

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

• Options/Preferences -> General: Performance
  remove checkmark: [ ] "Use recommended performance settings"
  remove checkmark: [ ] "Use hardware acceleration when available"
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/performance-settings

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-extensions-themes-to-fix-problems

You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

Have the problem also. The buttons are visible if I turn on the menu bar, otherwise not. Starting in safe mode shows them, disabling extensions and restarting does not.

I'm pretty sure the cause is that I have a userChrome.css to customise the position on my toolbars to Nav, Tabs, Bookmarks. For now I'll live with Alt-Spacebar to get a popup menu to let me minimise - if I remember that.

But it would be better if the buttons still appeared somewhere in spite of the customisation!

PeterWeb said

I'm pretty sure the cause is that I have a userChrome.css to customise the position on my toolbars to Nav, Tabs, Bookmarks. For now I'll live with Alt-Spacebar to get a popup menu to let me minimise - if I remember that.

We need some CSS code to customize the customization so there is a little room for the buttons above the nav-bar. Alternately, someone in another thread said they went into Customize and moved a flexible space to the right end of the nav-bar to create an area for the 3 buttons to show through.

Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars

For those who are on Windows - if the close button is still there, but the minimize and maximize buttons are missing :

Go to Windows Settings and make sure that you're not in Tablet Mode, but in Desktop Mode instead .....

I had this problem too. Somewhere, sometime back in release 56. I had used a solution to something in which I had created a userChrome.css file in the chrome directory of my profile. This was the problem. I just renamed that file and restarted FF.

thanks to jscher2000 for asking about having this file and jogging my memory.

PeterWeb said

Have the problem also. The buttons are visible if I turn on the menu bar, otherwise not. Starting in safe mode shows them, disabling extensions and restarting does not.

I'm pretty sure the cause is that I have a userChrome.css to customise the position on my toolbars to Nav, Tabs, Bookmarks. For now I'll live with Alt-Spacebar to get a popup menu to let me minimise - if I remember that.

But it would be better if the buttons still appeared somewhere in spite of the customisation!

I added some options to the end of the rule:

/* Tab bar below Navigation & Bookmarks Toolbars */
#nav-bar { /* main toolbar */
  -moz-box-ordinal-group: 1 !important;
}
#PersonalToolbar { /* bookmarks toolbar */
  -moz-box-ordinal-group: 2 !important;
}
#TabsToolbar { /* tab bar */
  -moz-box-ordinal-group: 3 !important;
}

/* To create space for the standard window buttons, either
   (1) Show the title bar
   (2) On Windows, show the menu bar
   (3) Enable the following rule by removing the comment tags */

/*
#navigator-toolbox {
  padding-top: 20px !important;
}
*/

/* If there is an undesirable color behind the tab bar, either
   (1) Install a theme to fill in the background from
       https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/themes/
   (2) Enable the following rule by removing the comment tags,
       then edit to the desired color */

/*
#TabsToolbar {
  background-color: #f8f8f8 !important;
}
*/

In my case the problem was caused by Colorful Tabs. I haven't got the title bar at some pop-up windows and the "+" symbol for opening a new tab on the main mozilla window. After closing Colorful Tabs the problem was gone.